I accidentally stumbled upon the below while looking to see if any strides have been made in increasing the tensile strength of polypropylene polymers:
https://www.nowofol.com/products/polyolefin-films/nowostrong
It’s made up to a meter wide, and at a thickness of .18 mm. Polypropylene has a density of around .91 g/cm3 Â PP is also quite an inexpensive base material, though the process they use might be more expense adding. Wonder if it could be applied to backpacking (it would need UV stabilizers added)?
If not by itself, then maybe in conjunction with another material, as a composite with some loosely woven, low denier PP fabric (theoretically, since it’s the same polymer material you could pressure+low heat bond them together and use only 1 layer of the film)? Â Or maybe more loosely woven 50D Dyneema, Spectra, or generic UHMWPE fiber fabric. Â (Sort of like an ultra high strength and more durable version of Dyneema Composite Fabric/Cuben Fiber).
